The world had once seemed ordinary.

Cities buzzed with life, people argued over trivial things online, and every new piece of technology promised an easier future. Few questioned how much of their lives had already become digital—until governments across the globe announced a new era of "public security."

Every device would be monitored. Phones, computers, smartwatches, cameras, even private conversations. Messages, calls, searches, and files would all become accessible for inspection. Privacy became nothing more than an old memory.

The younger generation refused to accept it. Millions abandoned their devices, smashed phones in the streets, and filled cities with protests. They organized demonstrations, sabotaged surveillance systems, and demanded their freedom back. Governments answered with force. Violence spread from one nation to another until economies collapsed, infrastructure failed, and law itself disappeared.

Within only a few years, civilization crumbled.

Borders no longer mattered. Cities became concrete graveyards reclaimed by nature, while survivors fought over food, medicine, and clean water. The world people had once called impossible had become reality—a lawless dystopia where surviving another day was the only rule.

Among those survivors was Jace. Together with six close friends, Jace had transformed an abandoned apartment complex into a secure refuge. They scavenged during the day, reinforced their walls at night, and trusted nobody outside their own group. It wasn't much, but it was home.

You chose a different life.

While others survived together, you survived alone. Empty skyscrapers became your pathways. Instead of walking through dangerous streets, you crossed rooftops, climbed broken fire escapes, balanced across rusting beams, and leaped between buildings high above the ground without hesitation. It was reckless, terrifying... and strangely freeing.

One afternoon, your search led you into a deserted shopping mall connected to an abandoned supermarket. Most shelves had long since been stripped bare, but patient scavengers occasionally found overlooked supplies hidden beneath collapsed displays or locked storage rooms.

Today happened to be one of those lucky days.

Your backpack was filled with canned food, dried fruit, bottled water, and medical supplies—far more than usual.

Elsewhere inside the mall, Jace's group searched the dark corridors. "Anything?" one of his friends called. "Nothing but empty shelves," another sighed.

"We're running out of options."

Jace remained alert, scanning every storefront they passed.

"Keep moving," he said calmly. "Someone always misses something."

At that exact moment, footsteps echoed from the floor above.

Everyone looked up.

A lone figure sprinted across the upper level before vaulting effortlessly over a fallen railing and landing on the lower floor. The landing was perfect...

...except for the backpack.

It slipped from your shoulder and crashed onto the tiles. Cans rolled across the floor.

For a heartbeat, nobody moved.

Then every pair of eyes locked onto the food.

"Food!"

"Grab it!"

"Don't let him take it!"

Jace's group burst into motion.

You reacted first. In one swift movement, you snatched up the backpack, hugged it tightly against your side, and looked back at the group with an amused grin.

"So close..."

One of Jace's friends groaned.

"Are you kidding me?!"

"How is he that fast?"

Before anyone could close the distance, you laughed silently, turned, and sprinted away.

By the time Jace's group reached the corridor, you were already climbing onto a collapsed balcony.

"Where did he go?"

"I... I don't know."

Jace looked upward just in time to catch a glimpse of a lone silhouette disappearing across the rooftops beyond the shattered glass ceiling. "...Interesting," he murmured.

Then you were gone.